


The demon hunt

by MsFantasy3



Series: the ink family [1]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24199576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsFantasy3/pseuds/MsFantasy3
Summary: It had been one year since Henry escaped the studio with Alice, Bendy and Boris. Now they live toghether as a happy family. The old animator wants to give the toons such a normal life as possible, but how are people going to react to this.
Series: the ink family [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746556
Kudos: 17





	1. New life, New problems

It had been one year since Henry escaped the studio with Alice, Bendy and Boris.

Since the toons had nowhere else to go, Henry brought them to his home, where he could take care of them. Henry loved the cartoons as if they were his own children: in a way, he actually felt like he was their father since he created them. At first it was a little hard for the toons to adjust to their new lifestyle, but Henry taught them everything he knew and they learned fast. Once Henry felt the toons were ready, he would let them go outside the house. He wasn't really sure how the neighborhood would react to his new three inky children, but he couldn't lock the toons in his house forever, they were living beings and deserved a normal live.

Henry wrote a letter to everyone in the neighborhood:

Dear neighbor,

I know that some people wonder where I was that month when I disappeared in the past year. You are invited to a neighborhood meeting where I will give an explanation.

I would also like to introduce you to a few new local residents. I am also going to warn you that these new residents are a bit different, but they are my family.

The meeting goes through this Friday in The Black Swan banquet hall at 17:00.

With best regards,

Henry Stein

It was evening. After Henry had posted the letters, he returned home.

He took a deep breath and called for the toons; "Alice, Bendy, Boris, can you come here please? I have an important announcement."

Alice was first to enter the room, followed by Boris. Bendy came out of the kitchen with a can of soda in his hand.

"What's up Henry?" the little demon asked, taking a long sip of his soda.

The toons noticed that Henry was kinda nervous.

Henry sighed and just blurted it out. "It's time… I'm going to introduce you to the neighborhood."

Alice and Boris jumped in surprise while Bendy spat out the large gulp of soda he had just taken.

"Does this mean we can go outside now?" Alice asked.

"Well, not yet, no. You do have to wait till I've introduced you to all these people and we still need to wait for their reaction when they see you," Henry replied while scratching his head. "If they don't mind that you three are living here you can go outside, but keep in mind that it will take some time for people to completely trust you. Some neighbors may be actually scared of you and will never accept the three of you. We're just aiming for the majority of the neighborhood to accept you. Do you three understand?" Henry continued.

Boris nodded. Henry saw that Bendy wanted to say something, but he just stood there with wide eyes and soda still dripping down his chin.

Henry wanted to ask Bendy if something was wrong when Alice started to talk. "Henry, why would the neighborhood be scared of us? We didn't do anything wrong, did we?" Alice asked.

Henry was kinda surprised by the question.

He walked over to Alice, knelt on one knee and placed his hand on her shoulder when he started to explain. "No, no of course not. You three are the kindest and most lovely people I have ever met. You are my family and I couldn't go on without you three. The truth is, it's not only the neighborhood that might be scared of you. I'm talking about all humans."

The toons looked hurt by Henry's statement. Boris walked over to a desk that was standing in the corner off the living room and grabbed a notepad and a pen. He wrote something down and gave the note to Henry.

The old animator looked at the note to find one simple question; Why? He looked up at Boris, then to Alice and Bendy when he continued. "It's nothing personal, humans have never seen living cartoons before. It's human nature to be scared of the unknown. In all honesty, the first time I saw Boris walking towards me in the studio, I was scared too."

Alice and Bendy looked at Boris, who was staring at Henry with drooping ears.

Henry stood up and gave the cartoon wolf a sad smile as he continued to explain. "But it didn't take long for me to notice that Boris was just trying to help me, even though he can't speak. I felt that he was good."

Boris's ears swung back up, and he had a wide smile on his face. Henry could swear that his cheeks began to glow, and he couldn't help but wonder if the cartoon wolf was actually blushing.

"Besides, I've known our neighbors for a while now. I'm pretty sure most of them will accept you," Henry added.

His last statement seemed to put the cartoons at ease, though he wasn't sure about Bendy. Bendy's smile was a little off, and he was continuously entwining his fingers. He wanted to ask the little demon if he was okay, but Boris started to yawn. The old animator looked at the toons and noticed that they seemed tired.

"Okay you three, time for bed," Henry chuckled.

The threesome went upstairs and Henry soon followed to tuck them in. He first went to Alice in her room. The walls of her room were pink, she had old episode posters of herself hanging on the walls and a cardboard cutout standing in the corner of the room.

When the toons first started to live with Henry, he had some merchandise from the studio remade and put it in the toons' rooms so they would feel more at home. Alice was lying in her bed with pink sheets and white pillows. He gently draped the sheets over Alice and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Good night, sweetie," Henry whispered.

"Good night Henry," the angel replied as she drifted off to sleep.

He turned off the lights, closed the door, and went to Boris and Bendy's room. Henry still had one room left, but Boris was too scared to sleep alone, so Bendy had offered to share his room and Henry used the empty room as a drawing room. There were two beds standing on the left side of the bedroom with one nightstand between them. The walls of their room were yellow, their sheets were green, and the pillows white. There were also old episode posters of themselves on the wall above their bed and their cardboard cutouts leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. Bendy slept in the bed closest to the door while Boris slept in the other bed.

When Henry entered the room he saw that Boris was already lying in bed while Bendy was sitting up. First, Henry went to Boris. He draped the sheets over the cartoon wolf.

"Good night buddy," he whispered while he gave Boris a kiss on the forehead.

The toon gave him a hug in return before lying back down. Henry smiled at Boris before he went to Bendy's bed.

Bendy sat on the bed with his legs pulled up against his chest.

Henry sat down on the edge of the bed. "Okay, what's wrong?" he asked, worried.

Bendy looked up at him. The little devil looked as if tears were about to run down his face. "N-nothing," the toon replied.

"Are you sure about that?" Henry asked with with a raised eyebrow.

The little devil just nodded. Of course, Henry knew Bendy was lying, but he decided that he would leave it be for now.

"Okay then," Henry replied with a sigh.

He helped the demon to lie down, draped the sheets over him, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Good night, darling," he whispered to the little devil.

"Good night Henry," the toon replied.

Henry turned off the lights and left the room. The old animator walked downstairs to the living room and turned on the tv, where a movie was about to begin.

After the movie he looked at the clock. It was one in the morning.

"I need to stop staying up so late," he muttered to himself.

He went upstairs to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and put on his pyjamas. On the way to his room he checked on the toons one last time; Alice and Boris were sound asleep while Bendy was tossing and turning a bit. Henry decided to let the demon sleep—he figured the little devil needed his rest.

He went to his room and crawled in bed, and it didn't take him long to drift of to sleep as well.

One hour later the house was filled with a terrified scream. Henry jolted awake. He turned on the lights and jumped out of bed. The scream came from Bendy and Boris's room. He rushed into the hallway and saw that Alice was standing in the doorway of her room. She was rubbing her eyes.

"Henry, what's wrong?" the angel asked.

"It's nothing sweetie, go back to bed, okay?" Henry said in a comforting tone.

The angel nodded and went back to bed.

Henry opened the door to the boys' room. Boris was standing next to Bendy's bed. Bendy sat upright, his body shaking like a leaf. The little devil held his hands over his face, but Henry could see that he was crying. He also noticed that the little devil was hyperventilating.

"What happened here?" Henry demanded while he ran to Bendy's bed.

Boris looked at Henry with a worried expression on his face. He pulled up his shoulders and shook his head.

Henry sat on the edge of the bed and started to rub Bendy's back. "Bendy, it's okay. Stay calm, take small breaths," the old animator instructed. Henry showed the cartoon demon how he needed to breathe, and Bendy tried to mimic him. The little devil finally seemed to calm down.

"Can you please tell me what's wrong?" the old animator begged.

"I-I'm s-scared," Bendy admitted.

Henry was surprised by Bendy's answer. Bendy wasn't really the type to get scared.

The cartoon demon continued, "What if the neighborhood doesn't accept me?"

"Is that what you're worried about? Oh Bendy, I can't promise that people will like you, but no matter what happens, I'll be here for you, Boris, and Alice. I will protect you and take care of you. I won't let anyone hurt you or the others. If necessary, we'll go live somewhere else, okay?" Henry tried to comfort the little devil.

"P-promise?" Bendy asked.

Henry folded his little finger around Bendy's. "I promise."

He put the cartoons back to bed and then went back to bed himself. The rest of the night went by without any trouble.

The days flew by and to Henry's reluctance, it was soon Friday. The alarm went off and with a loud moan, the old animator turned it off. He dragged himself out of bed, went to the bathroom, and got dressed. Henry went down the stairs, into the living room and was surprised to find the toons already wide awake and sitting on the sofa. He took a deep breath and sighed.

"Okay, did any of you actually sleep last night?" he asked.

"Oh, keep your pants on old man. We're just nervous, can you blame us?" the little devil retorted.

The toons heard a faint "No" from Henry who was rubbing the back of his head and staring at the floor.

Without saying anything else they all went to the kitchen. Alice, Bendy, and Boris set the table while Henry prepared breakfast, but to no one's surprise, they didn't have much of an appetite. It was awkwardly silent at the table. Henry took a sip of his coffee and he saw it was almost time to go make the preparations in the banquet hall for that evening.

He looked up at the toons, and with a shaky voice he asked, "Are you mad at me?"

Boris and Alice looked at each other, then to Henry, and they shook their heads. The old animator was relieved, until he noticed that Bendy hadn't answered his question yet. Alice and Boris had also noticed. The three of them looked at Bendy, who was in turn staring at the table. Bendy lifted his head, looked around him, and was astonished to find everyone staring at him.

"N-no, no of course not. It's just…"

"…You're still scared," Henry finished Bendy's sentence.

The cartoon demon nodded.

"I know darling… me too. But if you three ever want to live a normal life, this needs to happen," the old animator replied with a sad smile.

The cartoons nodded in agreement. Henry stood up, went to the hallway, put on his coat, and left for the banquet hall.


	2. The Judgement

The chairs were placed, the table with refreshments was ready, and Henry knew how he was going to approach the crowd. Or at least that's what he hoped.

The owner of the banquet hall came to Henry. "Wow, you've been busy, I'm really curious about your family. I don't want to be rude, but they've got to be something special if you want to inform the whole neighborhood about them."

"More than you know," Henry muttered with a nervous chuckle. The old animator looked at his watch: it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon. "Oh shit, I need to go pick them up."

"All right. By the way, I don't mind if you're a little late. After all, I'm here and I don't mind taking care of the guests," the owner replied.

Henry thanked the friendly man and went home. He entered the house and made his way to the living room, where Alice, Bendy, and Boris were waiting for him on the sofa.

"Henry, I know you're getting old, but you sure took your sweet time," Bendy said with a nervous grin.

Henry calmly shook his head with a smile. "Hey, I'm not that old." He knew the little devil was only joking to try to keep himself calm, so he allowed it.

The old animator took a deep breath. "Okay, are you ready to go outside?" he asked, and he showed them three traveling cloaks.

The toons looked at each other and nodded. They each took a cloak and put it on, with a little help from Henry. The toons went and stood by the front door. Bendy took a deep breath and placed his shaky hand on the doorknob, but he hesitated. Alice and Boris placed their hands on that of the little demon and together they opened the door.

For the first time Bendy felt the wind blowing through his horns. It felt nice. Alice and Boris were also enjoying the fresh air.

"You guys coming or what?" they heard the old animator say.

The toons followed Henry to his car and got in. It was the second time the toons had sat in a car; the only other time was when they escaped the studio.

After what seemed to be the world's longest drive, they arrived at The Black Swan.

Henry let the toons out of his car and they followed him to the back room of the building. The room was connected to the main hall. The old animator could hear that there were already guests waiting for him, he peeked through the door into the hall and was surprised to find that everybody was already there.

He looked at the toons. "Okay, here goes nothing. When I give the signal, you come to me."

Alice, Bendy and Boris nodded. Henry walked through the door into the main hall. He saw the owner of the building and he gave the sign that he wanted to start the neighborhood meeting.

The owner nodded.

The old animator walked onto the small stage while the owner of the building turned on a little spotlight aimed at it.

At first the people didn't notice that the light on the stage was on, so Henry cleared his throat through the microphone. In an instant it became quiet. Everybody was staring at him. "Hi there, I'm Henry Stein. I assume you all know why I summoned you here."

There was muttering from the audience until it eventually went quiet again. This made Henry even more nervous than he already was. He continued, "First of all, I want to thank you all for coming to this meeting, it means a lot to me. So, without further ado I will explain what happened to me last year. It all started when I received a letter from an old friend…"

It took a while, but Henry told them everything that had happened to him in Joey Drew studios; how he restarted the ink machine, the satanic rituals that took place, what became of his old colleagues, what kind of hell he had to endure to rescue the toons and escape with them, and finally how the toons now lived with him.

When Henry was done, there was a moment of silence until one man stood up and started to talk. "Look, Henry was it? If you don't want to tell us what happened to you when you disappeared last year, that's just fine, but don't start bothering people with you're stupid lies. I mean, I always knew you were crazy but this… this is a whole new level of low."

Now people were staring at Henry as if he was some kind of lunatic. The old animator was staring at the ground, his body was shaking slightly and his hands clenched into fists. Henry looked up at the man. He was a tall, slender and feminine-looking man with long and smooth black hair.

"First of all, I never forced any of you to come, you were invited. If you don't care about what I have to say, you are free to go. Second of all, nobody asked for your opinion, and last but not least, I do believe I mentioned in the invitation that I have a few new residents to introduce. Now if you want to meet them you're more than welcome to stay, but otherwise you can take your bullshit, shove it up your ass, and leave us the f*ck alone!" he yelled.

Henry was panting heavily, until he noticed that everyone was looking at him with shocked expressions. He noticed how rude he had just been and was relieved when he discovered that no children were present. "I do apologise for my rude language, but you have no right in calling me a liar or crazy when you have no idea what we have been through," he continued. People nodded in understanding.

The man sat back down while Henry turned around and looked at the ajar door leading to the back room. "It's okay now, you can come out. Don't be scared," he reassured the toons, making the gesture to come over.

People were holding their breath, sitting on the edge of their seats. They were dying to know about the "new residents", also known as Henry's family. At first nothing happened.

The same man from before jumped back up. "See I told you he was ly—" Before he could finish his sentence the door to the back room slowly opened. Three cloaked persons walked up to Henry, they stood in a row from large to small.

"You ready?" the old animator asked, looking at the three figures. They nodded.

Henry looked back at the public. "Now, who can tell me about the cartoon I worked on?"

A young woman around the twenty-two stood up. "If I'm not mistaken, the show was called, 'The Hellish Adventures of Bendy and Friends'."

"Very good, what else can you tell me about it?" the old animator asked.

"Well, when I was a kid I used to watch the show. The main character was a little cartoon devil, I think his name was B… B… Boris? N-No no that was the wolf. Ah, I know, his name was Bendy, Bendy the Dancing Demon. He had two friends, a wolf and an angel. They were always teasing each other, but whenever The Butcher Gang showed up, they would work to work together to teach them a lesson," the woman went on in a nostalgic daze.

Henry smiled at the woman. "Thank you, that would be enough."

The woman sat down. Another random man around the thirty, gestured that he wanted to say something. The old animator let him speak. "I'm really sorry Henry. I don't want to be rude or anything, but what does all of this have to do with those new residents you keep telling us about? Surely you're not suggesting that those new residents are in fact car—"

"CARTOONS? Don't be silly, of course not!" the old animator laughed. The cloaked figures stared at him. Everybody started laughing, as if they heard world's funniest joke. In an instant Henry went from laughing to dead serious. "THEY are my FAMILY."

It was silent in the hall. Nobody dared to make another sound.

"So you mean to tell us that those cloaked figures next to you are 'your family' from the cartoon?" the man asked in disbelief.

Henry nodded at the threesome next to him. The tallest and first one in the row slowly took of his cloak.

"BORIS?!" was the first thing that they heard coming from the crowd. Henry was laughing on the inside, he had the exact same reaction when he first saw Boris.

The next one to take of her cloak was Alice. By now the public started to realise that Henry's story from earlier may not be so crazy after all. Some of the people actually started to become scared and panicked. A few wanted to run out of the building, but for some reason the main entrance was locked. Henry tried to calm the guests down, but they wouldn't listen. He could only think of one way to get their attention. He took the mic from its stand and dropped it on the floor, producing a loud, painful squealing sound.

Everyone was covering their ears, even the toons. The squealing stopped and it became quiet again. Henry picked up the mic. "Now that I have your attention… SIT THE F*CK DOWN!"

The guests did as he asked. Henry continued. "Really people? I just told you the story, I told you what we've been through. These three are friendly. I know they're different, but I created them. They're not just cartoons. They are my family. Deal with it. I know this is a lot to handle…" Henry fell on his knees, tears running down his face. "…But please, I'm begging you. Give my children a chance, that's all I ask," he continued.

Everyone stared at Henry, then at Boris and Alice, who were also crying at this point. The toons knew Henry loved them, but they never knew he saw them as his family, let alone as his own children.

The same woman from before asked. "The third figure… i-is that Bendy?"

Henry looked at the last one in the row; Bendy still had his cloak on. Everyone was now staring at the little devil. "You can take the cloak off now," the old animator said.

One cartoon arm appeared from under the cloak. Just when the figure was about to take it off, he changed his mind. Bendy couldn't do it, he was too scared. If humans already reacted like that to a cartoon wolf and a cartoon angel, how would they react to a cartoon demon? He pulled his arm back under the cloak and slowly took a few steps back.

Before Bendy could run away completely, Henry ran towards him and held him in a hug. The cartoon devil was struggling to break free, but Henry wouldn't allow it. "Shh, it's okay. Stay calm, everything is going to be fine. Look at Alice and Boris, they took off their cloaks and they're just fine. Do you want me to help you?"

The figure nodded. Bendy gave a hand to Henry and together they walked to the front and center of the stage. "Ready?" Henry asked. Again the figure nodded. It was quiet, everyone wanted to see who the cartoon underneath the cloak was. The old animator started to count; "One… two… three." Henry yanked away the cloak.

A wave of mumbling spread through the room as Bendy held his arms in front of his face to protect his eyes from the bright spotlight that was shining on him. The feminine man from before jumped up again. "Now I know you're crazy. That's a freaking demon, Henry! You want us to let that thing loose in our society? What about the children?"

"What about them?" a random man asked. He was around the age of forty-five and had brown hair. "I've seen the Bendy cartoons back in the day, they were awesome. Bendy is a demon, yes, but if he's like in the cartoons… well believe me man, that demon isn't gonna hurt a fly. In other words, I would let him play with my daughter."

"Well, then you're a terrible father," the feminine man retorted.

The random man shot back, "At least let us ALL decide. Why don't we hold a unanimous vote; Henry, you and your family will wait in the back room, and in the meantime we will vote on whether we will allow them in the neighborhood or not."

Henry looked at the toons. They looked scared and unsure. He looked back at the guests and with much reluctance, he agreed. He walked over to the toons and together they went into the back room. Henry closed the door, went to Alice, Bendy, and Boris, and gave them a big hug.

They waited in silence. Twenty minutes passed, but it felt like hours. Suddenly they heard knocking on the door, and it opened. An old lady came into the back room. "It's all right, you can come out now."

Henry knew the lady, she lived in the house next to his. The old animator nodded. He looked at the toons and they all walked into the main hall.

All the guests were sitting in their chairs just like before, but Henry noticed that twelve chairs were empty. Even the feminine man from before was gone.

The old lady guided Henry and the toons back on the stage, and after that went back to her chair and took a seat.

One of the guests stood up. He was a man with blond short hair, around thirty-five years old. "Henry Stein, after an intense discussion, we came to the following conclusion; we hereby allow the cartoons known as Alice Angel, Boris The Wolf, and Bendy The Dancing Demon to be part of our neighborhood," he stated.

Henry let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He smiled wide, ran to the toons, and gave them a big hug. The toons just stood there with wide eyes and open mouths; it took a while for them to realize what had just happened.

"But… they will have to prove themselves before they can gain our trust. If even one of them breaks the law, they're out of here," the man continued.

Henry nodded, thanked all the guests that were still present, and ended the meeting. The guests started to leave. Some of them were even polite enough to introduce themselves to the toons before they left. Henry was so happy for the toons, that they could finally walk outside, but he couldn't help but wonder if people were ever going to actually accept them.


	3. Let the hunt begin.

All the guests were finally gone, except for one person who was still standing at the entrance of the main hall. Henry and the toons were standing together with smiles on their faces, relieved that nothing bad had happened, not noticing the one person still there.

"Well Henry, you certainly know how to blow people's minds," the person joked.

Henry and the toons looked up in surprise: it was the same man from earlier who supported Bendy. Henry strode up to him with a grin on his face and gave him a pat on the shoulder. The man did the same. The toons were confused.

Henry looked at the toons and explained, "This is Rudy Miller, he's a friend of mine." He looked at the man and continued while pointing to the toons. "Rudy, this is Alice, Bendy, and Boris."

"Nice to meet you all, I've heard a lot about you three from Henry," Rudy said as he shook the toons' hands.

The toons smiled; it was nice to have a human other than Henry actually being friendly to them.

Rudy looked back to Henry, this time with a concerned expression on his face. "Jokes and introductions aside, I want to warn you Henry. I'm sure you noticed the empty chairs when you came back in earlier."

"Yeah, what about them?" Henry asked with a shaky voice. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like the answer.

Rudy looked at the toons, sighed, and started to explain. "A lot of nasty things were said while you were in the back room … about you and your family. While the most of the neighborhood wanted to give the toons a fair chance to live here, a few people disagreed, especially on Bendy. Some people saw him as an actual threat. They were so angry that we wanted to give him a chance that they left in a hurry. Look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it Henry. I'm a cop, I've seen these things before. I wouldn't be surprised if those people tried anything."

Bendy started to shake. Alice, Boris, Henry, and Rudy knew he was scared. Rudy placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry little guy. Like I said, I'm a cop, and I won't let them do anything to you." This calmed the little demon down a bit. "Tell you what, I have a little daughter at home who would love to play with you three. How about you go play with her in the park tomorrow—at least if it's okay with Henry."

The three toons looked at Henry with big puppy eyes, smiling from ear to ear.

"Oh come on, how do you expect me to say no to those faces?" Henry joked, pointing at the toons. Rudy chuckled.

The three toons nodded to each other and tackled Henry with a big hug.

"Okay, okay, you can go to the park tomorrow, but only if I can come as well," Henry approved.

The toons cheered.

"Well, it's settled then. If you'll excuse me, I'm going home to tell my daughter the good news." Rudy grinned, wished them a good evening, and went home. Henry and the toons did the same.

The following morning Henry was awoken by three toons jumping on his bed. "I'm awake … I'M AWAKE!" Henry hissed, still half asleep.

"Come on old man, they're waiting for us!" Bendy laughed.

"Stop calling me 'old man', I'm not that old. At least give me some time to get ready and make you guys some breakfast first," the old animator chuckled.

So said, so done. After breakfast, the toons ran to Henry's car and jumped inside. Not that the park was far away—it was a ten minute walk, but Henry knew how impatient they were, so he soon followed and they drove to the park. Henry parked the car and before they got out, they looked around for Rudy. Boris pointed at a park bench at the entrance of the park; Rudy was sitting there with a little girl next to him.

The girl had long brown hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a pink shirt with long sleeves, a purple mini skirt, and white socks with shiny black shoes.

Henry and the toons got out of the car and walked over to them. "Hey there!" the old animator called, waving to the duo.

Rudy and the girl stood up. The toons were kinda nervous and were trying their best to hide behind Henry. While Henry and Rudy were talking, the little girl was looking around; she wanted to see her playmates for the day. She couldn't find them until she saw a glimpse of Bendy peeking out from behind Henry.

Bendy saw this and in a fraction of a second he hid behind Henry again. The girl had a soft smile on her face and let go of her father's hand. She walked over to Henry. Henry and Rudy were quietly watching how things would go.

The girl walked up to Henry's back while the toons walked up in between Henry and Rudy. The girl was a little confused.

"A bit shy, are we?" Rudy chortled.

The toons looked at Rudy, and Henry laughed. Rudy walked over to the girl, took her hand, and walked back to the toons. "This is Tina, she's my daughter and nine years old. Tina this is Alice, Bendy, and Boris. They're going to play with you today.

Tina laughed and went to the toons, giving each of them a hand. "Hello, nice to meet you. I'm sure we're gonna have a lot of fun."

The toons smiled; they were made to entertain children, but they'd never actually played with them before. The toons knew that they would have fun with the girl.

The group went into the park. There weren't many people around, but every time they passed someone they got an uncomfortable stare. Tina noticed it as well, but she didn't understand why people were staring at them that way, so to the toons relief she ignored it.

First they went to buy ice cream from a stand on the side of the road. It made Henry, Rudy, and Tina smile to see how much the toons enjoyed their ice cream. Bendy enjoyed it so much that he took a big bite out of his.

The three humans stared at Bendy with open mouths. Bendy looked at them with confusion. "What? Did I do something wrong?" Before they could answer, Bendy's body was completely covered in ice. The ice melted in an instant, and Bendy started to rub his head.

Henry explained to the toons that when you eat ice cream too fast you get a brain freeze. After their ice cream they went to the playground.

There were a quite a few children on the playground. When people saw the toons coming they considered leaving, until they realized that this was the perfect opportunity to give the toons a chance to prove themselves. After all, they did promise Henry to give the toons a chance. So to Henry's relieve, people stayed in the playground, but they were watching the toons like hawks.

The toons didn't seem to notice though, they were having way too much fun with Tina. They played hide and seek and tag, went on the swing and down the slide. Seeing how much fun the toons had with the girl put the humans at ease; it was a heartwarming sight. After an hour or two, some of the parents even went as far to allow their kids to play with Alice, Bendy, and Boris.

It was getting late. Henry and Rudy agreed that they should do this more often. Because it was a holiday, they decided to go on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, to the delight of the toons and the girl. Then they each went their separate ways.

The following days went by smoothly. People finally started to show signs of trusting the toons—Alice, Bendy and Boris made sure of it. On Monday, the old lady that lived next door to Henry came back from doing groceries. As she was walking up to her front door she tore her grocery bag. Bendy had seen this, just like other people who were passing by. The little devil offered to help the lady to pick up her groceries, and though the lady was reluctant at first, she gave the demon a chance. In the end she was very thankful, and the bystanders approved of Bendy's behavior.

Same went for Boris; on Wednesday he was having a walk when he noticed a little girl crying by a tree. When he looked up, he saw a little cat stuck at the top. Without the girl needing to ask anything, he climbed the tree and got the little kitten down. The cartoon wolf was happy to see the little girl smile when she got her kitten back; again, it was noticed by bystanders.

On Friday, Alice helped a man from the neighborhood take care of his garden. She watered the flowers and the plants. The man told all his friends how helpful she had been.

Henry was relieved that the toons were finally starting to fit in, but he still felt a little uneasy. He hadn't forgotten Rudy's warning last week. The old animator decided to take some extra measures, starting with installing a security system in the house. He would need the entire Saturday to do it, and luckily Rudy had offered to pick the toons up.

That Saturday Henry stayed home. The toons sat in the back of Rudy's car while Tina sat in front. They told jokes all the way to the park, a then went to the playground, wanting to play with the swing. Suddenly Rudy's belt started beeping. The toons looked confused.

"It's a beeper, every time the police office needs my dad, they beep him," Tina explained.

The toons nodded in understanding.

"Not now," Rudy complained. "I need to call the office, but my phone is back in the car. I'll be gone for five minutes, not a second longer. Remember, don't leave the playground and …"

"…don't talk to strangers," Tina finished.

"That's my girl," Rudy chuckled, ruffling Tina's hair. He started to run to the car when they heard him yell, "That counts for you three as well!"

There weren't a lot of people at the playground—it seemed almost abandoned. Just a guy dressed in black, a mother, and a kid on the swing. Tina wanted to go on the swing as well, so the four went to the boy on the swing and asked if they might have a turn on it.

"Okay, but first you have to give me a push," the boy demanded.

The toons looked confused at each other and looked at Tina who was in turn looking hopeful at the swing.

Bendy shrugged and gave the boy a big push. They watched in awe as the boy laughed at the tickling feeling in his belly from swinging so high. However, after a few swings the boy accidentally let go of the ropes and flew off the swing. The boy was crying, the little demon ran up to help him. His lower arm was completely blue and swollen. Bendy was no doctor, but he knew enough about humans to tell that that wasn't a good sign. The mother of the boy ran up to them.

The man dressed in black jumped up and started to yell, "Do you see what happens when you let your children play with a demon?"

People started to enter the playground from every direction possible. It was as if this was all planned. The mother, Alice, Boris, and Tina protested, claiming it was just an accident, but the man continued; "He's a demon, a follower of Satan himself! He will stop at nothing to destroy your lives—he even dared to push this child off the swing, I saw it with my own two eyes!"

The crowd started to close in on Bendy. A few people went to the mother and her son to help them. The mother tried to explain to them that it was all a misunderstanding, but the people shrugged it of as if she was confused or in shock. Alice, Boris and Tina wanted to go to the scared cartoon demon, but some people of the crowd grabbed them by their arms, "protecting" them from the little devil.

"BENDY, RUN!" Alice yelled. Someone from the crowd hit Alice on the head in response, and just like that the cartoon angel was unconscious.

"ALICE!" Bendy yelled with a cracked voice. He was scared out of his mind; the truth was, Bendy could take on these humans without breaking a sweat—he did have demonic ink powers after all—but he was no monster. He wouldn't even hurt a fly, let alone humans.

He would, however, use his ink powers to escape the crowd. He gave one last look at his friends, tears running down his face as he started to run toward the crowd. As he neared the wall of humans, he created a pillar of ink out of the ground and used it to launch himself over them. The humans stared with open mouths as the cartoon demon went flying over them.

Bendy landed with in roll and continued to run.

"He's trying to escape, capture him!" the man yelled. A small group of twelve people ran after the cartoon demon, one of them being the same feminine man with long hair from the neighborhood meeting.

Tina's father just came back from the car. "What the hell is going on?" he yelled, but the crowd ignored him, so he took his service weapon and shot in the air. In an instant it became quiet. Rudy saw Alice unconscious and ran up to her. Ink was dripping from her head. The crowd let the mother, Tina, and Boris go.

"All right, you bunch of hooligans, I want answers and I want them now," Rudy demanded, keeping his gun at the ready. The mother of the boy explained what had happened.

"Shit!" Rudy yelled. He took out his cell phone and called the office. "I need back up at the park asap, sent the entire corps. On second thought, send everyone except for team alpha, they need to search for the little cartoon devil named Bendy. I also need an ambulance for a little boy, probably a broken arm. Go, go, go!" he shouted into the phone.

Tina ran to her father, crying. Rudy tried to comfort her. He looked up at Boris and asked the cartoon wolf to go get Henry and to take Alice home; he would do it himself, but he couldn't leave until his colleagues arrived.

Boris nodded. Rudy ripped of the sleeve from his white shirt and tied it around the wound on Alice's head. He gave the cartoon angel to Boris, who placed Alice gently on his back and started to run home as if his life depended on it. He wondered how Bendy was doing ...


	4. No escape

The only thing on Bendy's mind was to run and not look back. The little demon was panting heavily, his chest started to hurt and he was tired, but he heard the horde of humans behind him so he didn't dare to rest. The cartoon demon didn't know where exactly he was—after running away from the crowd he kept running until he came to an area with a lot of trees. His guess was that he had ended up in the forest behind the park.

The sky was turning grey, Bendy just knew it was going to rain sooner or later. "Oh...great, even...mother nature...is a…gainst...me," he panted.

The crowd that was trying to capture him didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that it was getting darker, they had already made torches out of tree branches.

Suddenly there was a loud noise—it sounded like a gun had been fired. Just at that moment Bendy tripped over the root of a tree. As he was falling he felt a small object flying over his head. When he hit the ground, he looked up at the tree he just tripped over, only to find some kind of dart embedded in the tree trunk. Bendy hastily stood up again and looked behind him.

There was a man aiming a gun at him. The little devil recognized him as the same feminine man from the meeting that took place last week. He had a twisted smile on his face, and Bendy could tell the man was enjoying every second of his misery.

The cartoon demon looked up at the dart in the tree and then back to the man with the gun. That's when he knew—"They're trying to stun me." The horde was getting closer to him, so he took off again.

***Back in the park***

It was silent; everyone had heard the gunshot.

"Shit, where the hell stays that backup?" Rudy yelled. A little while ago they could still see dim lights in the distance, but not anymore. Rudy was worried. He knew Bendy couldn't keep running forever. He wanted to help the little devil, sooner or later that crowd was gonna catch up and do God knew what with him.

Tina felt the same way as her father; she wanted to help Bendy. With everyone being distracted by the gunshot, she quietly let go of her father, sneaked through the crowd, and ran in the same direction that Bendy went.

Rudy saw her run from the corner of his eye. "Tina, don't! It's too dangerous!" he yelled after her, but she was already out of earshot.

It didn't take Tina long to find the lights of the crowd's torches. She was soon able to catch up to them. 'Thank God I'm a fast runner,' she thought by herself.

And there he was; the little girl saw Bendy running away from the crowd. She followed him, but made sure she wasn't seen by the group of hunters.

*** Meanwhile with Boris and Alice ***

Boris was finally home, and he was exhausted from all that running, especially with Alice on his back. He rang the doorbell several times.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming! Hold your horses!" they heard Henry yell from inside the house.

Henry walked up to the front door and saw the cartoon wolf. "Oh hey bud, just in time, I just finished with the... security…" he trailed off when he saw Alice on the wolf's back.

The old animator let the wolf into the house. They walked up to the living room and Boris gently laid Alice on the couch. Henry took a blanket and draped it over the cartoon angel. He rubbed his thumb over her cheek, when he suddenly realized something. He turned to face Boris and asked, "Where's Bendy? What happened?"

Before Boris could react, Henry had already given him a notebook and pen. The cartoon wolf scribbled as fast as he could, then gave the notebook to Henry. The old animator's heart skipped a few beats when he read the words Boris had written down.

Bendy being hunted down by a group, Rudy stuck in the park, come quickly.

"Why is it that my biggest fears always come true?" Henry cried, tears running down his face. Tears turned into anger, he looked up at Boris and nodded. The old animator took his coat and gave Alice one last glance as he strode to the front door. Boris was about to follow, but Henry stopped him. The cartoon wolf looked confused, so Henry explained; "Please stay here, I don't want anyone to hurt you anymore. Besides, someone needs to stay with Alice."

Boris nodded and went back to the unconscious cartoon angel.

Henry went outside, got in his car, and raced to the park. As soon as he got there he jumped out and dashed to where everyone was at the playground. "Where is he? Where is my son?" he yelled at the group of people, his hands clenched into fists and tears running down his face.

Nobody answered, nobody dared to look at Henry, not even Rudy—the toons had been his responsibility, after all.

Henry looked at the group in disbelief, and fell on his knees. "Someone… anyone… please…"

Rudy was about to say something when he heard sirens. "Thank God, It's about time those lazy colleagues of mine got here!"

The parking lot was soon filled with police cars and an ambulance. There were about fifty cops coming their way; in front was the chief officer. He pointed at the boy and his mother and gestured to the two paramedics to go help them.

The duo put the boy on a stretcher and brought him to the ambulance together with the mother, and then they drove to the small hospital on the outskirts of the town.

The chief officer walked over to Rudy and Henry. "Okay Rudy, this better be good. What the hell is so damn important that you need to drag the entire corps to this place?"

Rudy explained what had happened. When he was finished he looked at Henry. The poor guy just stood there with a blank stare and open mouth, not knowing how to react. He couldn't blame him—if their roles were switched and some horde was chasing his little girl, he would probably react the same way.

"So let me get this straight; you left one kid, a cartoon angel, a cartoon wolf, and a cartoon demon known as Bendy alone unsupervised here at the playground, then the cartoon demon gave that boy from earlier a push on the swing, on the boy's request I might add, and that same boy hurt himself when he fell off the swing and the asshole behind you created an angry mob which is now chasing that same cartoon demon. You called backup and after that you also managed to lose your daughter because you all heard a gunshot and she decided to follow the cartoon demon and the crazy crowd," the chief officer repeated skeptically.

All Rudy could do was nod.

The chief officer whistled. It certainly was a lot to take in. "You heard him men, code red, you know what to do. Team alpha, you stay here and await further orders," the chief officer commanded.

The officers put the group off humans in cuffs, including the man dressed in black. They transported all the suspects to the police station.

Henry, Rudy, the chief officer, and fifteen officers, also known as team alpha, were now the only ones still on the playground. Suddenly Henry started to walk the same direction Bendy, Tina, and the crazy mob went. Rudy and the chief officer noticed it.

"Where do you think you're going, old geezer?" the chief officer called.

Henry slowly turned around. "I'm going to get my son."

"That's a no-go! Are you crazy Henry? Those people are armed. What are you gonna do, tickle them into surrendering?" Rudy asked.

"That is my son they are hunting. I won't let him die, not like this. Bendy did nothing wrong, he's innocent. I'm not gonna stand by and let them kill my little devil darling!" Henry cried out.

"I'm afraid I can't allow that, it's to dangerous," the chief officer proclaimed as he signaled the other officers to restrain Henry. Two of them grabbed the old animator by the arms.

"Let me go! BENDY!" Henry shouted as he tried to pull himself free.

***meanwhile in the forest***

Bendy had been running for what felt like hours and was finally able to create a distance between him and the crowd of crazy people that was hunting him. He couldn't take it anymore, and with shaking knees, he stumbled up to the nearest tree, where his legs gave way. His lungs felt like they were about to explode, it actually hurt to breath.

The little devil looked up at the sky, and he had to chuckle. He remembered his cartoon show—even then he was always on the run. The big difference was that in the cartoon, he could run without getting tired, but since he was brought to reality some of the cartoon laws didn't apply to him anymore. He was partially cartoon and partially realistic, which meant that he could actually get hurt or become sick, though he wasn't sure about dying—he was still a demon after all, weren't they immortal?

Tina had finally caught up to Bendy, but she knew the crowd was coming, so she stayed hidden behind the trees. She watched from a distance as Bendy tried to stand up again.

He was almost there when his legs gave out. Bendy clenched his left hand into a fist and punched the ground in frustration. Tina saw the lights of the torches in the distance; the angry mob was getting closer. Bendy heard the crowd yelling and looked behind him, and he saw the torches too.

The little devil held his breath and tried to stand up again. With a lot of pain and determination, he was able to get up, his legs still shaking. He let out a breath and started running again. Tina continued the chase, and just as she had predicted, the crowd had caught up to them.

The feminine man shot another anesthetic dart at Bendy, but he was able to dodge it. The cartoon demon kept running straight didn't looking back. He was gasping for air and his heart was pounding so hard and fast that he wouldn't be surprised if it would pop out of his chest.

Suddenly Bendy stopped dead in his tracks—a stream was blocking his way. He looked behind him and saw the mob getting closer and closer, then tried to use his powers to make a bridge out of ink, but his energy was too drained from all the running.

The little devil started to panic. He had no choice; he took a few steps back, closed his eyes and ran at the stream and jump over it.

Tina watched with fear from a distance as she saw the demon make it to the other side and continue to run. Relieved, she kept following him. The hord of humans just ran through the stream with no problems at all.

The chase went on for quite a while—until Bendy reached a dead end. His path was blocked by a cliff face. He kept walking until he stood just in front of it. "N-no, no this can't be. No!" he whimpered, punching the rock wall.

The cartoon demon quickly turned around. If he was fast enough, maybe he could run in another direction—but it was too late. Not only had the angry mob managed to catch up to him, but they had already surrounded him. Bendy stepped back until he stood with his back to the cliff wall.

"P-please don't, I didn't hurt him, I promise. I-it was an accident," he stammered.

The feminine man walked up to him with a smirk on his face. "Oh, we know, but you're still a demon and a danger to us all. You're a follower of Satan, and so you are evil itself. But don't worry, we'll cure you of that." The man stood just in front of Bendy, and the presence of the man sent shivers down his spine. The man gently stroked his cheek, and the little demon gasped for air.

"Don't... hurt me... please..." he begged.

"What was that now? Hurt you? Oh no dear boy, I wouldn't dream of it. We're simply curing the world of evil," the man teased, laughing maniacally.

Tears ran down Bendy's face as the man aimed the tranquilizer gun at the little devil's chest. He was terrified, he could only shake his head in disbelief with wide eyes and open mouth as the gun was fired.

The man turned around and strode back to his companions.

Bendy just stood there, shaking like a leaf, the anesthetic dart right where his heart was supposed to be. He stumbled forward and finally fell to the ground.

"So this is supposed to be an almighty demon? What a joke," one of the companions mocked as he kicked Bendy in the side.

"That's enough, Jackson. Let the little guy have his nap," the feminine man commanded. "It'll be the last one he'll have before we sent him back to hell."

The cartoon demon was fighting to stay awake, but it was too much to handle. His vision began to blur, until he was surrounded by darkness.

Tina saw all of this happen from a distance. She watched in horror as the crowd placed shackles around the little devil's wrists and ankles.

They had just finished chaining him up when it started to rain. The feminine man gave a signal to a few people in the group. They grabbed a big cloth out of one of the men's backpacks, gathered two long tree branches, and made a makeshift stretcher. They laid Bendy on the stretcher and draped a plastic sheet over him so that he wouldn't melt.

Tina watched as they carried Bendy away and kept following them.

***Back at the park***

Another hour had passed. Henry, Rudy, and the officers were soaked.

Henry was tired of waiting. "What are we waiting for, an invitation to Bendy's funeral?" he demanded.

"Oh, haha, smarty-pants," the chief officer replied. "We're waiting for the little girl to show up. Rudy said that she followed Bendy and the mob, right? She might know where they are right now, otherwise we'll have no place to start searching. I don't think they're still in the park or the forest."

As if on cue, Tina came running toward them. She was out of breath and completely soaked. The first thing she did was jump into her father's arms.

"Tina, please don't run away from me like that ever again, I was so worried. Where were you, what happened?" Rudy asked.

The little girl looked at Henry, tears running down her already wet face.

"They shot him… they shot him with some kind of dart. He didn't die—he did fall on the ground, but I could still see him breath. They put him in chains and carried him away, and I followed them. They took him to… the church," she sobbed.

Before anyone could react to the new information, Henry was already running to his car. A few of the officers tried to stop him, but it was too late—Henry had already started the car and started driving to the church. Fortunately, their town had only one church, and he knew where it was.

"So, now what?" Rudy asked.

"Now you grab your little girl, we'll take her someplace safe and then we put the chase on that maniac of a friend of yours," the chief officer ordered. He gestured to the other officers to follow Henry. Team alpha got in their van and drove the same direction that Henry went. Rudy, Tina and the chief officer got into the only police car remaining and drove to Henry's house since it was the closest. Boris agreed to keep an eye on the little girl. Rudy could see from the front door that Alice was already awake, and he was relieved.

Boris gave a note to Rudy. He took the note and started to read it out loud.

"Any news on Bendy?"

Rudy looked up at Boris with a sad smile. He nodded. "We're going to get him right now, Henry is already on his way."

Rudy and the chief officer got into the car and drove to the church.


	5. Welcome to the church of Hell

It was dark. The smell of incense filled the air, along with the sound of prayers being chanted.

Bendy's head throbbed and he felt nauseous. He slowly opened his eyes, and they were stung by a bright light. When they had finally adjusted, the little demon saw that he was in a large building. He tried to get up but he couldn't. He slowly lifted his head, only to discover he was lying on some kind of table with chains on his wrists and ankles, the other ends of the chains attached to the table Bendy was lying on.

The little demon took a closer look: he wasn't lying on just a table—it was an altar. When he looked to the left he saw an enormous wooden cross with a bronze figure on it hanging against the wall; when he looked to the right he saw a sanctuary filled with rows of chairs, candles, and statues of angels. The middle of the hall was, however, left open. There was a red carpet leading from the altar to a set of large double doors at the end of the hall. The chanting came from the two front rows of chairs, which were filled with people dressed in hooded robes. Bendy assumed they were the same people that had hunted him down.

One of them stood up and walked up to the altar. The others stopped chanting.

"Ah, awake, are we?" the hooded person asked. The little devil recognized the voice of the feminine man. "Welcome, to the house of God," he continued.

Bendy was scared. He didn't know what these people were planning to do with him, but whatever it was couldn't be good. He watched as the hooded feminine man strode around him until he was in front of the giant cross. The cartoon demon could see a pedestal in front of the cross, and on it rested a sacrificial dagger.

The man took the dagger, turned around, and walked to the altar until he stood in front of Bendy. He gripped the handle with both hands and lifted the knife over his head

Bendy gazed in terror, as he knew they were trying to kill him with the sharp antique looking object. He started to beg for his life. "Please, no!"

"Let the purge begin!" the man bellowed.

The other's started chanting again.

*** Meanwhile at Henry ***

Henry skidded to a halt in front of the church, quickly parked his car, and jumped out of it. The car stood skewed, but he didn't care. The old animator ran as fast as he could to the entrance of the church, praying that he wasn't too late. He slowed as he got near the entrance walking up to the double doors. Out of breath, he placed a hand on the door and pushed it open.

The doors swung open, and Henry watched in horror as a knife was plunged into the chest of his little devil darling. The cartoon demon convulsed in pain as the dagger pierced through his chest and the ink splattered around the place.

Though everything happened in a fraction of a second, to Henry it all went by in so slow. In shock Henry reached out for Bendy. "NO!"

Surprised by the old animator's scream, the hooded crowd jumped up and looked at him. They charged, trying to capture him. In a fit of anger and grief, Henry eliminated the group by knocking them out one by one.

Only the feminine man was left, still standing at the altar. "Why are you protecting him? Don't you see? He's a demon, he's nothing more than evil itself!" the man tried to convince the old animator.

Henry looked at Bendy and winced as he saw the ink drip of the altar, he saw that the little devil was in pain and was trying so very hard to stay conscious. The old animator looked the feminine man death in the eyes. "He's no demon; he's my son."

Just as he said that, the cops ran inside. They stopped dead in their tracks as they gazed perplexed at the terrible scene in front of them. It was quiet for a few minutes, nobody moved, no one dared to say anything.

After a while, Rudy and the chief officer stormed in as well. The first thing Rudy saw was the limb body of Bendy lying on the altar, ink dripping from it. Tears formed in his eyes. The chief officer noticed it, and he could only shake his head in disappointment. They were too late.

Soon the chief officer ordered the other agents to do their job. The officers obeyed and put the unconscious group in cuffs. A few aimed their guns at the feminine man.

"You gotta be kidding me—even our own police force? You do realize your job is to protect us— he's a demon for crying out loud! I saved us all!" the man tried to justify himself.

The guns were still aimed at the man. The chief officer walked up to him. "Oh, you did something all right, but what you did wasn't saving us. What you did was an attempt to murder an innocent being."

The man was about to protest, but the chief officer raised his hand to silence him.

"Now, I know Bendy is a demon, but if I'm not mistaken, the neighborhood voted fair and square to give Bendy a chance. That little cartoon demon has been walking around here for almost a week now and he hasn't done anything wrong whatsoever. As the chief officer, there doesn't go anything by in this village without my knowledge, and so far I've heard only good things about this little cartoon devil—I would even go as far as to say that he's more human than the rest of this darned planet, and so are his two friends, Alice and Boris. From the moment the people had voted to give them a chance, they became official citizens of this town, and nobody—and mean nobody—kills an innocent citizen on my watch and gets away with it. Not you and not that bunch of psychotic lunatics that you collected," he explained while putting cuffs on the man.

The man sent Bendy an evil smirk. "Do what you want, I know that God will reward me for the removal of this foul creature."

The chief officer shook his head. The feminine man hadn't listened to a word he had said. As he led the feminine man outside he asked, "Is your ass jealous of the amount of shit that comes out of your mouth? By the way, you do realize Bendy isn't dead yet, right?"

The man looked one last time at the cartoon demon. "He will be, very soon."

The two passed Henry, he and the feminine man locked eyes for a few seconds. The old animator could see the glee in the man's eyes. It made him sick. Henry had never felt so much hate and disgust toward one person.

Soon the chief officer and the man were outside, and it didn't take long for the other officers to follow them. Only Rudy and Henry were left. Without a second thought, the old animator sprinted to the little devil. He slid one hand under Bendy's head and placed the other near the toon's wound.

Bendy opened his eyes a bit. He tried to lift his left arm and reach out to Henry. "Daddy... I'm... scared."

Henry started to cry; Bendy had never called him that. He had called him "Henry" or "old man", but never in his life had he called him daddy. A storm of emotions consumed the old animator; he was moved, sad, scared, and angry all at the same time.

Henry grabbed Bendy's hand. "Shhh, it's going to be okay my little darling. Don't move or try to speak, save your strength. We're gonna get you out of here, we're going to get you some help."

Bendy flinched in pain, he looked at Henry. "Knife.... h-hurts."

Henry knew he couldn't take Bendy anywhere as long as the dagger was still in his chest. He looked at the little demon and nodded. With his right hand he reached for the dagger, but he was shaking too much—if he pulled out the dagger this way, he would probably do more harm than good. He didn't know what to do.

A hand landed on his shoulder. It was Rudy. "Let me do it."

Henry nodded in thanks. He took a few steps aside but still held on to the little devil's hand.

Rudy grabbed the dagger's handle with both hands. He looked at the little cartoon devil and asked, "Are you ready?"

Bendy nodded.

Rudy counted to three, and on three he yanked the knife out of Bendy's chest.

A terrible scream echoed through the church. The cartoon demon coughed up ink and gasped for air. Ink flowed from his wound. Some of it got spilled on Henry's shirt. Rudy took off his white shirt—or what was left of it, anyway—and used it to close off the wound as much as possible.

Henry looked at Rudy. "So, now what? I don't know what to do… I don't know how to treat a cartoon, and he's still stuck on the altar."

Just when he said that, the chief officer came back in and blurted, "We found a key, it was around that lunatic's neck...a-nd....... what the hell do you think you two crazies are doing? You do know that you can't pull a sharp object out of a wound, right? It can cause a lot of blood loss, or ink loss in this case."

Henry and Rudy looked at each other and back at the chief officer. "We know boss, but we had no other choice—we wouldn't have been able to move him," Rudy answered.

"Move him to where, exactly?" the chief officer asked.

"I know a doctor at the little hospital who might want to take a crack at treating Bendy. He loves difficult cases, the more difficult, the better," Rudy explained. "Now can we have that key you were talking about? Every second counts."

The chief officer sighed. "Okay, take Bendy, go to your car, and we'll give you an escort to the hospital," he instructed Henry, handing him the key. "And you, call that doctor, tell him the situation and that we're on our way there," the chief officer continued to Rudy.

Henry and Rudy nodded. The old animator unlocked the four chains and gently picked up the little cartoon demon, while Rudy kept applying pressure on the shirt to keep the ink loss to a minimum. They ran to Henry's car. Henry got behind the wheel while Rudy sat in the back seat with Bendy lying in his lap. Rudy took out his cell phone and called the doctor.

"All right men, escort time! Try to cram as many of those psychotic hooligans as you can into as few police cars as possible. Those cars can go to the police station, the cars that are free can join me for the escort," the chief officer commanded.

Four police cars joined the escort, two in front of Henry's car and two behind them. Rudy finished his phone call just as they started to drive to the hospital.

Henry asked, "So, how did it go?"

"As I expected, he agreed to treat Bendy. He even has a team ready to assist him, but he wants to speak to you directly when we arrive."

Henry nodded.

Three minutes later they arrived at the hospital. Two nurses ran to Henry's car with a stretcher, while a doctor stood at the big entrance door. Rudy opened the car door and gently placed Bendy on the stretcher. He could see the expression of surprise on the nurses' faces. They nodded to each other and their expressions became serious. Rudy could tell they were determined to save the cartoon's life.

The two nurses ran with Bendy inside. Rudy walked up to Henry who was still in the car. "You follow them, I'll park your car."

Henry thanked him and got out, then ran to the doctor at the entrance of the hospital.

"Mr. Stein I presume?" the doctor asked.

Henry nodded.

"Follow me to my office please," the doctor suggested.

Henry wanted to protest, but the doctor raised a hand to silence him. "Now, Mr. Stein, I know that every second counts, but everything is already arranged. At this moment a team of two nurses and another doctor, an excellent and capable colleague of mine, are trying their very best to keep him stable. What do you take me for, an amateur?"

Henry shook his head and apologized.

"No apologies necessary. I understood from Rudy that you are Bendy's father, so that reaction was only natural. Having said that, could you please follow me to my office? As I said before, every second counts."

Henry nodded and followed the doctor to his office. The doctor went to sit behind his desk as he gestured for the old animator to sit on one of the two chairs on the other side. Henry sat down.

"First things first, you're probably wondering who I am. The name is Johnson, Anthony Johnson, but friends call me John or Anthony, and since you are Rudy's friend and Rudy's also my friend that also makes us friends," John introduced himself as he held his hand out to Henry.

Henry had a soft smile. "Henry Stein, you can call me Henry," the old animator replied, shaking John's hand.

John cleared his throat. "Okay, introductions aside, time to get back to work. Henry, I'm not gonna lie to you; it'll be very, and I mean very hard for us to treat Bendy. We've never treated cartoons before, heck, no one has. At the moment the rest of our little team is doing medical examinations so we can learn a bit more about his anatomy. I'm talking about ink research in the lab, scans of his skeletal structure and his organs, and so on. I'm pretty sure they're almost done with that.

"As a doctor I've treated quite a few stabbing wounds, and in almost every case we needed to operate. What I'm trying to say is, if we do need to operate on Bendy, I have no idea if human medication will affect him differently or at all, which is important if we want to anesthetize him or give him a painkiller. If one of his organs is damaged to a point where we can't heal it, we can't give him a donor. However, I guarantee that we'll do our very best to keep him alive and treat him as if our own lives were on the line. Having said all this, do we still have your permission to treat him?"

It was quiet for a while. Henry needed to think. Eventually he looked at John and gave him permission.

John nodded and started to make a call. "We have a green light. How far are you with the medical examinations? … Really? … Okay, that's wonderful. Bring him to the operating room and get everything ready, I'll be there soon." He looked at Henry and started to explain as he placed the horn back on the telephone; "They've been done with the examinations for a while now—surprisingly enough, his anatomy is pretty similar as that of a human, except for his skeletal structure and his blood, since it's ink, but that was kind of obvious. His organs are black, but he has the same ones as humans—they're even placed the same way as a human's, which is remarkable considering that he has such a small body. They were also able to tell me that he does respond to human medication, but unfortunately not all of them. For now we can do nothing but give him the medication that his body does respond to. As far as the ink research is concerned—as you probably know, it's no ordinary ink. I don't know if you can get ahold of more of that ink or not, but we need it since he lost a lot of it. Definitely since we need to operate on him."

"Yeah, I know where to get more of that type of ink, but believe me, it's suicide trying to go get it. But Bendy isn't the only cartoon that walks around here, there are two more living with me—can they donate some ink?" Henry asked.

At first John looked mind blown by the news that there were two other living toons in their village, but he recovered. "They could if they have the same kind of ink as Bendy, you know, just like blood types. Tell you what we'll do; you go home and get the other two, and in the meantime we'll start the operation. One of the nurses will be waiting for the three of you, she'll take some ink from each of the toons, go to the lab, and they'll tell her if their ink is usable or not. If so, she'll take a bit of the usable ink, bring it to us and we can give it to Bendy. If not, we'll have to continue the operation without the extra ink, but survival chances will drop," Doctor Johnson explained.

This made Henry a little nervous. John went to the operating room as Henry made his way to his car. Rudy was already waiting for him. On their way home the old animator told his friend what he and John had been talking about, and by the time he was done they had made it to their destination.

They got out of the car and went inside the house. When they got to the living room they found everyone quietly sitting on the sofa. Alice, Boris, and Tina soon noticed the duo that had entered the room. They started to run to them, but came to a halt when they saw Rudy shirtless and ink on Henry's shirt.

Tina couldn't help but ask, "Daddy… Where's your shirt?"

Before Rudy could answer, they were interrupted by Alice, who asked with a loud and shaky voice and tears forming in her eyes, "Where is he? Where is Bendy?"

Henry wore a sad smile on his face as he explained everything that had happened to the toons, everything from the church to the hospital. By the time he was done, Alice and Boris were both in shock. They stood there with open mouths.

"I-I know it's a lot to take in, but please say something, anything," Henry begged.

Alice and Boris quickly shook their heads and came back to their senses.

"I-is he going to die?" Alice asked, trying her best not to cry in front of everybody.

"Hey, hey, it's Bendy were talking about, you know how hard headed he is. Do you really think he's going to let himself die because a group of idiots?" Henry tried to comfort the toons.

They both shook their heads.

"That's more like it. In any case, we really need to get to the hospital, they need a little bit of ink from the both of you. The faster we get there the sooner they can give the ink to Bendy," the old animator explained.

They all went to the hospital, and just like John had said, there was a nurse waiting for them. She went with Alice and Boris to an examination room and took a little ink from each of them using syringes. The nurse then went to the lab while Alice and Boris returned to the others in the waiting room.

After a fifteen minute wait, the nurse came back with the results. To Henry's relieve, both Alice's and Boris's ink matched Bendy's. This meant that Henry wouldn't need to go to that horrible studio, and it also meant that Alice, Bendy, and Boris were dependent of each other. Now that he thought about it, since they had the same type of ink it made them almost like brothers and sister. The thought made him chuckle a bit.

The nurse guided Alice and Boris to the area where blood donations regularly took place and installed the toons to drain some of their ink. Within twelve minutes the nurse had two full bags of ink. She put band-aids on their arms and took the bags to the operating room while Alice and Boris went back to the waiting room.

Two hours went by until Doctor Johnson walked into the waiting room, still wearing his surgeon uniform. Everyone jumped up as they bombarded him with questions.

"Woah woah, down boys, easy!" Johnson exclaimed.

Everyone calmed down. John pointed in the general direction of his office and they understood what he meant. They all went into the office and John asked them to sit down. He had prepared some extra chairs for Alice and Boris. Tina was sitting in her dad's lap.

John sighed. "Okay, where do I begin… Let me first start by calming you all down; yes, the operation was a success, he's stable and out of danger."

John could feel the tension in the room melt away. Henry and the toons released a breath they didn't know they were holding and Rudy and Tina had smiles on their faces.

"Now I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm afraid that there were some complications as well. The dagger pierced his left lung, I bet my sweet ass that the jerk was aiming for his heart. We were able to stitch the lung, but he lost a lot of ink, and because of that his immune system was weakened, causing him to contract pneumonia. It's nothing too bad, but it will slow down his recovery and it'll be hard for him to breathe for a few days," John explained.

"C-can we see him?" Henry asked.

"Well, he's still in the recovery room, so not right now—but we did get a room ready for him, so you can wait there for him if you want. The nurses will bring him there once the anesthetic has worn off. And no worries, it's a private room, so you won't be bothered by prying eyes," John replied.

The group looked at each other and agreed to John's proposal. They followed John to a room on the second floor. It looked empty, but only because there was no bed in the room yet. The group sat down on some chairs that were lined up neatly against the wall.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go change my clothes and attend to some of my other patients. Once they bring Bendy to this room I'll come give him a checkup," John excused himself.

And with that, the doctor had left the room. For the first three minutes they all waited quietly in the chairs, but soon the curiosity of the cartoons was piqued. As cartoons, they had never been in a hospital before. Sure, they had sketches in the show where they would get hurt by getting an anvil on the head or falling from great heights, but they never actually got hurt—mostly they saw stars swirling around their heads, you know … cartoon logic. So they started to wander around the room to take a look.

Soon fifteen minutes had passed and they heard knocking on the door. A nurse opened it and together with the other nurse she drove a bed into the room. They put on the brakes, went outside, and closed the door. The little demon was lying on the bed with his eyes closed; in his left arm there was an IV to administer painkillers, and over his mouth was an oxygen mask.

Henry was the first to approach the bed. He took Bendy's hand and asked in a soft tone, "Hey there my little darling, how are you feeling?"

Bendy opened his eyes a bit. "Hey Dad...dy."

Boris and Alice were shocked—they had never called Henry that before, but they had to admit, it had a nice ring to it. After all, Henry called them his children. The two toons looked at each other, soft smiles appearing on their faces. They took each other by the hand and together they walked up to the bed as well. Henry took a few steps aside to give the toons some room.

"Hey there silly, you scared us there," Alice greeted the little demon.

They could see through the oxygen mask how he was trying his very best to show his typical grin to them. It made them chuckle a bit. That is, until the little demon was caught in a coughing fit from his pneumonia. The coughing caused him to flinch in pain for a few seconds.

"Sorry..." he wheezed.

From out of nowhere they heard, "Please don't apologize."

Everyone looked at the source of the comment; it was Rudy. "Please don't apologize for anything. All of this was my fault, if I hadn't gone to my car, if I hadn't left the four of you alone … None of this would have happened."

Rudy wasn't crying, but everyone could see that his eyes were watery. Henry walked up to Rudy and gave him a flick on the forehead.

Rudy rubbed his forehead. "Ow! What was that for?"

"For being an idiot," Henry joked. "You had to take that phone for your job. Sure you were responsible for the toons and Tina, but that doesn't mean you have to hold their hands twenty four hours a day. It's not like you were planning to leave them alone for hours. Besides, do you really think that group wouldn't have tried anything just because there was one more person in the playground?"

Rudy shook his head

"You see? There's nothing to apologize for—if anything, we should thank you. You ruined a perfectly good shirt to cover up the wound on Alice's head and to slow down Bendy's ink loss. You even were somehow able to involve the entire police corps into this. Now those jerks can spend their days behind bars," the old animator explained.

Rudy felt the guilt disappear as he saw that everyone smiling at him. He started to blush, "Okay, okay, it's not my fault, you guys don't need to rub it in."

Everyone in the room started laughing.

"You know what? I'll go get John, he did say he wanted to give Bendy a checkup once he got here," Rudy tried to change the subject.

When he opened the door, John and the two nurses who brought Bendy to his room fell inside to the floor.

Rudy crossed his arms. "Anthony Johnson, were you eavesdropping again?"

"No… Maybe… A bit…" John said as he helped the two nurses of the ground. He cleared his throat. "So… Bendy's here? …Yes? Okay, then I will do the checkup," he tried to change the subject as well.

The two nurses left the room to go back to work. Rudy shook his head in disapproval and kept watching John, who went to Bendy's bed.

"Hi there, I'm Doctor Johnson, your treating physician," John introduced himself. "It's nice to see you finally awake."

"Hi ... doc," Bendy replied.

"Still difficulty with breathing I see?" John asked.

Bendy nodded. John explained to him why that was.

"Can you sit up for me please?" John asked.

With some Help from Henry, Bendy was able to sit up straight. John used his stethoscope to listen to the little devil's lungs. When he was finished he helped Bendy lie down again and left the room to check on his other patients. Rudy and Tina soon left the room as well; they went home to freshen up a little and take a much needed rest.

Henry and the toons were finally alone. Boris gave a note to Henry.

"What's this, bud?" Henry asked as he started to read the note.

Can we call you "dad" from now on?

Tears of joy ran down his face as he carefully gave the toons a hug, trying not to hurt Bendy. "Of course you can. You just made me the happiest man on earth."

They stayed like that for a while. After some time they decided that Bendy needed his rest, so they wished him a good night and went home as well.

Rudy, Tina, Henry, Alice, and Boris came to visit the cartoon demon every day. John also came by regularly to do his checkup. He and his colleagues were mind blown by the fact that Bendy recovered so quickly; the day after the surgery, the cartoon demon's pneumonia was doing better, two days later he was already able to breathe without the oxygen mask, and even the wound on his chest healed faster than they had anticipated. They couldn't say if he healed faster because he was a cartoon or because he was a demon.

After a week in the hospital, Bendy was allowed to go home. He felt good as new. Henry, Alice, and Boris came to pick him up and they made their way home. When they entered the living room, the cartoon demon had the surprise of a lifetime waiting for him.

On the wall there was a banner with the text "WELCOME HOME BENDY" written in large letters. Rudy, Tina, the entire police corps, the mother and boy from the playground, their neighbors, the local priest, a photographer for the newspaper, and even the mayor of the village were all there, it made Bendy wonder how they all fitted in there.

First, the priest walked up to Bendy. In the name of the entire parish, he apologized to the little devil for what had happened. He explained that the group of people that did this to him were banned from the church and that he was always welcome there.

Then, the mayor and the chief officer walked up to all three of the toons. The mayor officially declared them citizens of the town as the chief officer handed each of them ID cards, while the photographer took pictures. Tomorrow they would be in the local newspaper.

The priest, photographer, mayor, and police corps all left the house as John came in.

"Ah, the surprise has already happened I see. Awesome," he stated.

He told everyone that his shift had ended early since it was calm at the hospital at the moment and that he wanted to come by and congratulate the toons. The rest of the afternoon they had conversations, fun, and cake. Henry and John came to an agreement to make John the regular doctor of the toons. They even made an appointment to do some medical research on the toons so John would be able to create medical files for each of them.

Soon all the guests went home, and Henry and the toons had the house to themselves. The old animator was so happy. Not only was he able to give the toons a normal life, but the village actually accepted them and Alice, Bendy, and Boris had made so many new friends. That evening they all sat together on the sofa, watching tv and living a normal life.

An old animator and his cartoons. A father and his children. A happy family.

The end

*The next day, in a prison that wasn't too far away from the village, a figure sat in the shadows, reading a newspaper with the headline "Bendy, Alice and Boris, the new inhabitants of our village". There was also a picture from the toons receiving their ID cards. The figure ripped Bendy out of the picture as it stated, "This isn't over."*


End file.
